Personality psychology, social psychology and psychological methods (BPS130)


Course description for study year 2024-2025

Facts

Course code

BPS130

Version

1

Credits (ECTS)

15

Semester tution start

Spring

Number of semesters

1

Exam semester

Spring

Language of instruction

Norwegian

Offered by
Time table

View course schedule

Content

This course addresses different perspectives that all have the common goal of describing, predicting, determining the cause of and explaining aspects of human behaviour. The main focus is central topics within personality psychology, social psychology and methodology. Through teaching in plenary sessions and seminars, the students will learn about key concepts and how to apply them through critical, theory-driven reflection.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

On successful completion of this course, students will

  • have knowledge of a selection of concepts, theories and empirical data from personality psychology and social psychology
  • have knowledge of the main similarities and differences between the concepts, theories and empirical data covered, including the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various theories
  • have knowledge of the main categories in psychological research methods, with special emphasis on statistics and application of the software SPSS
  • be familiar with different research designs and their relative strengths and weaknesses

Skills

On successful completion of this course, students will

  • be able to recognise different personality assessment methods and provide a brief account of their relative strengths and weaknesses
  • be able to distinguish between personality traits and conditions
  • be able to apply different social psychological theories to understand, influence and predict people’s behaviour in social situations
  • be able to apply theories from both social psychology and personality psychology to explain common phenomena from two different perspectives
  • be able to make a basic assessment of the design and results from different research designs
  • be able to use SPSS to finalise different statistical tests

General competencies

On successful completion of this course, students will

  • be able to define, apply and discuss key concepts
  • be able to read and interpret basic statistics

Required prerequisite knowledge

None

Recommended prerequisites

BPS110 Introduction to psychology

Exam

Form of assessment Weight Duration Marks Aid
Written exam 1/1 3 Hours Letter grades

Students who have not passed either the ordinary or the deferred exam, are referred to the next ordinary exam. Any compulsory coursework that have already been passed do not need to be retaken. The student must take the examination in accordance with the relevant course description for the course, which may be new or revised. The student can decide whether they want to attend the teaching in the new examination semester.

Coursework requirements

Group presentation, Seminars, Group work

All of the compulsory activities must be approved in order for the student to be eligible for examination. Approval/non-approval of compulsory activities is announced on Studentweb, normally no later than 7 days before the examination. Students who lack approval of one or more compulsory activities will be withdrawn from the examination.

Compulsary activities:

  • Seminars: Preparation for, attendance and participation in five seminars. Students who have less than 75% attendance at the seminars lose the right to take the examination, regardless of the reason.
  • Written assignment: Written group work requirement with weighting expression pass/fail. Reference style: APA 7th. The assignment is defined by the course supervisor.
  • Presentation: The group presentation includes a presentation of important findings from written group work and has a weighting expression pass/fail.

Course teacher(s)

Course teacher:

Alberto Danilo Garcia

Study Program Director:

Muriel Marisa Katharina Bruchhage

Method of work

The teaching consists of lectures and seminars.

  • Students are expected to prepare for lectures by reading relevant literature. The recommended reading is indicated in the lecture plan.
  • Compulsory group assignment.
  • In seminars, the different theoretical topics and methods are presented using a variety of different learning activities. The seminars will also be used to teach students how to give each other constructive feedback on compulsory assignments before they are submitted.

Open for

Psychology - Bachelor's Programme
Admission to Single Courses at the Faculty of Social Sciences

Literature

Search for literature in Leganto